The fledgling Data Science Initiative will help to foster, catalyze, coordinate and promote
research and education related to Data Science and Big Data on campus.
It aims to serve as a place for like-minded faculty, postdocs, graduate students
and undergraduates to come together to explore a vibrant new inter-disciplinary field
that leverages phenomenal changes in technology, computational capabilities
and statistical and machine learning developments.

Data Science and Big Data are more than the sum of
statistics, machine learning and computer science.
They are the outcome of a very recent, structural change in the nature of research in many
disciplines, ranging from bioinformatics, astrophysics, psychology, neuro-science, political
science, economics, business and commerce, environmental science, linguistics and
the humanities, generally.

Data Scientists are in high demand, both in industry and research. The set of skills a Data
Scientist needs is broader than one discipline or degree program alone. This challenges the
existing models and the Data Science Initiative plans to work with and facilitate inter-departmental
development of new courses and degree programs at both the undegraduate and graduate levels to train
students in Data Science.

The Data Science Initiative hopes to serve as a hub of emerging activity
on campus related to statistical and machine learning, technology developments,
inter-disciplinary data-related research and education.
We plan to

hold regular informal seminars to discuss new technologies and methods,
and brainstorm about problems in different domains;

run an inter-disciplinary seminar series on cutting-edge aspects of Big Data Science;